Steve973

Recipes 

If you were going to brew an English Barleywine, what grains would you use? Let's say you were trying to make something akin to J W Lee's harvest ale. What would you do to give it over-the-top maltiness and that great raisin/toffee/caramel flavor?

Iordz

Recipes 

I don't know if I can help you with the entire recipe but the dark crystal malts will give you the raison/caramel flavor you are looking for. It's very important to use an English pale ale malt as the base, with some medium crystal or cara malts and finally, a little bit of Special B or crystal 100-120L. Make sure not to go too crazy with the crystal/character malts, I would not use more than 5% dark crystal. Remember that the English yeasts usually attenuate a little lower than American yeast and add fruitiness, so the beer will be quite malty without the use of too much crystal malt. You shouldd use a healthy portion of English hops (EKG for me!) to balance the maltiness and keep the beer from becoming cloying.